St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-01-15

|
| They measured their lives by the chains
they broke off, by the garments they put
upon nakedness, by the miles they Travelled
| to alleviate every kind of suffering. They
| felt in the thrill of every nerve,
in the motion of every muscle, in
every throh of their heart, in every
| respiration Of their lungs, the magnificent
| truth NO man liveth for himself" They
went through cold and through heat, foot
| blistered, check smlttcn, back scOurgcd,
| tempest dashed, to DO their whole duty.
| That is the way they measured hfe-by the
amount OF good they could do. Do you
want to know how old LGthar was; how
old Richard Baxter was; how old Philip
Doddridge was' Why, you can not calcu-
late their lives by any human arithmetic.
| Add to their lives ten thousand times ten
| thousand years and you have not expressed
i it-What they have lived or VIII 1--we. .,
what a standard that is to measure mans
life by. There are those III this house who
think they have lived only thirty years.
| They will have lived a thousand-they
! have lived a thousand. There are those
who think they are eighty years OF age
| They have not even entered upon their III
fancy, for one must become babe III
| Christ to begin az all.
| Now | do not know what your adTan-
tages or disadvantages are--l do not know
| what YOUR tact or talent isl do not know
what may be the Fascination OF your man
ners or the responsiveness of them; but L
know this: There is for you, my nearer, a
field to culture, a harvest to reap, tear to
wine away. q soul to save. II you have
| worldly means. cOnsecrate them to Chr.o;t;
if YOU have elOquencc, use it on the side
that Paul and Wilberforce used theirs; II
YOU have learning, put 1t all lrto the poor
box Of the worlds suffering. But II you
have none of these-nether wealth, nor
eloouence, nor learning-you, at any rate,
have a smile with which you can en-
courage the disheartened, frown with
which you may blast injustice, voice
with which you may call the Wanderer
back to God. Oh you say, Z" that is
very sanctimonious view of lifeW 1t IS
not 1t is the only bright view Of life, and
it is the only bright view of death.
| Contrast the death scene OF a man who
has measured life by the worldly standard
with the death scene of a man who has
measured life by the Christian standard.
QUINN the actor in his last moments, said:
Il hope this tragic scene will soon be over,
and hope to keep my dignity to the last"
Malherba said in his last moments to MS
confessor: Hold your tongue! Your
miserable style puts me out Of conceit with
Heaven" Lord Chesterfield il his last
moments, when he ought to have been
praying for his soul, bothered himself
about the proprieties Of the sick room and
said: Give Dayboles CHAIR Godfrey
Kneller spent his last hours on earth III
drawing diagram of his own monument.
Compare the silly and horrible departure
of such men with the seraphic glow on the
face of Edward Payson, as he said in his
last moments: 1.-The breeze5 of Heaven
fan me. | float in q sea of glory" Or,
with Paul, the Apostle who said in his last
hour: II am now ready to be offered uD
and the time of my departure is at hand.
/ have fought the good fight. have kept
the faith Herceforth there is laid up for
me crown Of righteousness which the
Lord my righteous Judge, will give me.'
Or compare it with the Christian death-be
that you witnessed in your own household.
Oh, my friends, this world is false god
1t will consume you with the blaze In
which it accepts your sacrifice, while the
righteous shall be held in everlasting re-
membranes; and when the thrones have
fallen, and the monuments have crumbed
and the world has persisted, they shall ban
quet with the conquerors of earth and The
hierarch of Heaven.
This is good day in which to begin a
new style of measurement. Chow old art
thou?n You see the Christian way of meas
uring life and the worldly way of measur-
ing it. Ileave it to you to say which is the
wlsest and best way. The wheel Of time
has turned very swiftly, and it has hurled
us on. The old year has gone The new
year has CONS. For what you and / have
been launched upon it, God only knows
Now let me ask you all: Have you made
any preparation for the futuree You have
made preparation for time, my dear broth
er; have you made any preparation for
eternitya Do you wonder that when that
man on the Hudson river, in indignation
tore up the tract which was handed to him.
and just one word landed on his coat sleeve
the rest Of the tract being pitched into
the river-that one word aroused his soul.
1t was that one word SO long, so broad, SO
high, so deep-sseternity' A dying wom-
an, in her last moments, said: g Call it
bsck!" They said: ''What do you wanta'
ss1'ime," she said; ''call it back' Oh, it
can not be called backl We might lose our
fortunes and call them back; we might
lose our health and perhaps recover it; we
might lose our good name and get that
back; but time gone is gone forever.
Some of you, during the past year, made
preparation for eternity, and it makes no
difference to you really, as to the matter Of
safety, whether you go now or go some
other year-whether this year or the next
year. Both your feet on the rock, the
waves may dash around you. You can say:
''God is our refuge and strength-a very
present help" You are on the ROCK, and
| you may defy all earth and hell to over
| throw you congratulate you. give you
great joy. It is a happy New Year to you.
To all Christians it is a time of gladness.
am glad the years are going. You are COM
| ing on nearer home. Let your countenance
light up with the thought: Nearer home.
Now, when ene can sooner get to the cen
ter of things, il he not to be congratulated
) Who wants to be always in the freshman
} class! We study God in this world by the
Biblical photograph of Him; but we all